I drink and watch anime

Re:Zero 2 pt 2 episode 44 – A World Full of Love

Irina

It’s Wednesday! Or as I like to call it, almost Friday. I’m forward looking like that. It’s a pretty big work week this week but things are going well. Things seem to be slowly settling and that’s a welcomed respite. 

How about you Crow? How be things for you?

You know how you have an important task you have to clear your schedule for? Then a more important comes in, so you have to freeze the first task so you can pick it up later, then start the new task? I’m literally five layers deep right now for the week. And of course everything’s due. Sigh. But at least I’m employed. And as you said, it’s almost Friday. So there’s that!

Looks like I’m in bold. There’ll be spoilers. You know, the usual.

I have to say, one of the first things that struck me as I watched this week’s episode is that Subaru and Pandora have a few things in common. Well, maybe just the one, but it’s a pretty important one. I actually think that Pandora dies more than Subaru does. I mean she beat his entire season record in like half an episode. 

These two should be friends. No one is ever going to understand what it means for Subaru to die all the time like Pandora does. And we already know that she’s his type, design-wise. What do you think Crow, good match?

You know, until you’d brought up it up, it didn’t even occur to me! But thinking about it, she ticks a lot of the boxes! We haven’t seen her pout yet, so it’s not clear she’s a perfect match. But as you said, she understands the whole death thing better than anyone Subaru’s met so far!

I gotta say, it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen an anime stretch out a fight over almost three episodes like that. It sort of reminds me of the good ‘ol DBZ days. Pretty nostalgic. 

My Hero Academia season 4 gave it a good shot! And I just realized I never put an episode guide together for that. I got to get on that…

I know that re:Zero is based on light novels and my understanding is that these are essentially just what they call young adult novels in Japan. As such, they aren’t necessarily illustrated. I have a few, most recently I got At Night I Become A Monster, which I really enjoyed and it has no illustrations at all. I was wondering if the character designs are entirely a creation of the anime, as they are quite striking. If so, good job on the part of the designers for the adaptation.

It would also explain why the series does not tend to use visual language too much. If it’s simply something that is not part of the source at all. 

It seems like the series relies more on the strength of accumulating plot actions, with some notable character details (not related, generally, to body language), which it then uses as the raw material for plot twists. 

I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. But it is remarkably missing little character movements like you see in Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, for example.

Emilia was a pretty fun kid. Despite all the tragedy, she fought back and insistently at that. It didn’t quite work out at the time but it was still impressive to see.

Kudos to her eff-it courage. 

I am one of the few people who has not seen Frozen, so I am not sure about this, but from what I have heard, Emilia’s backstory does seem to be a lot of parallels with the Disney movie. Have you seen Frozen Crow, are there any similarities?

For the record? Let is Go was a powerful song. It’s not Idina Menzel’s fault it got played ad nauseum! From a 10,000 foot level or at a first glance, there are some similarities. For example, both Elsa and Emilia had not only a skill with ice magic, but a ridiculous amount of it. For Elsa, the story was about her trying to suppress her powers because of a childhood accident. For Emilia, she didn’t even remember she had the powers! But in both cases, the characters had to confront who they are to move forward.

No, seriously, Let is Go was not a bad song!

I really like Pandora’s poncho thing. I know it’s pretty random but I kinda wish I had one. It looks super comfy. Speaking of Pandora (see, it all fits), she’s apparently the witch of Vanity and not Vainglory. Unless I got confused again. Ultimately they are all synonyms of pride, although vanity is generally further imbued with a sense of emptiness or lack of value. As in someone who is proud can be justified in their pride but someone who is vain is not. I’m not sure if that would make the Witch of Vanity a lesser version of the Witch of Pride or a greater one as it seems more sinful.  Or are they the same?

Pandora doesn’t seem particularly easy to kill so if she was replaced by the current Witch of Pride, I would be very curious to know how that happened.

Last week, when I checked Anilist, it listed her as Vainglory. So, I went with it. This week, it’s Vanity. So, thanks for setting me up Anilist!

Her poncho looks a little breezy for the climate. But it does look like it doesn’t restrict range of motion at all.

It seems that the ordeal really did Emilia some good. She was a lot more fun this episode. I’m not sure what happened to Echidna, though. I hope it’s not a tradeoff cause I think I still prefer fun Echidna to fun Emilia.

Well, there’s Emilia, this P.Y.T. who turned Subaru’s head. Echidna’s what, 400 or 500 years old? Don’t get me wrong. She looks great for her age! But it’s got to weigh on her. Especially the Subaru thing. I think Echidna was sure she’d snagged the sweat-suited hero…

When the episode snapped back to Subaru and friends, I got a little shock. reZero is usually a pretty show but boy, those models were a bit out of whack. Is that even an expression?

It was almost too dark to see!

So now there are two trials left for Emilia, but apparently, nothing to worry about. I’m not sure they will show them to us. And the showdown with painted Roswaal. I liked his little exchange with Otto. Personally, I hope we get at least one episode of just fun slice of life stuff. I feel like we need to recover a bit.

Emilia certainly needs a break. She did well in this episode, but it had to be emotionally exhausting. In fact, my favorite moment was when she got back and looked at the graffiti Subaru had left for her. It seemed like events overwhelmed her, and she started crying. To me, who is admittedly an emotional cinder block, that felt more dramatic than some of the more bluntly presented images.

Though I gotta say… I felt sorry for Geuse. Not enough to forgive him for what he did — um, will do — to Rem, but a little.

Also, is everyone at the manor just dead forever now? Cause it’s been a while. Subaru’s rez point probably reset. Maybe that’s why no one ever mentions Rem anymore… Oh, I bummed myself out. 

I’d need to do some math (which I am too tired to do right now!), but I think Subaru still has time. In fact, I think that’s part of his bet with Roswaal. Besides. If Rem, Frederica, Beatrice, and Petra are dead, I’ll be quite put out. Enough to write a sternly worded letter or two!

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